Chen came out of his room after tucking you in his bed. You had fallen asleep after sobbing into his shirt for the second time that day and Chen had decided to just let you sleep on his bed.

 

 

 

"No need," Mrs Kim said with a smile. "Where's your girlfriend?" 

 

Chen rolled his eyes playfully. "Haerin's not my girlfriend, mom." 

 

"Not yet, she isn't," Mrs Kim laughed. 

 

"Yeah, not yet.." Chen smiled softly at the thought of you being his girl. 

 

"So where is she?" 

 

"In my room, sleeping." Chen said before he realized that it sounded a little weird. "She was crying and then she fell asleep. I didn't want to wake her up so I figured she could just sleep on my bed until dinner was ready." 

 

"What's wrong? Is she okay?" Mrs Kim asked, her tone obviously showing that she's worried. 

 

"Yeah, she's fine. At least I think she is." 

 

"What happened to her?" 

 

"Uhm.." Chen hesistated to tell his mother what had happened. I mean, sure, Chen trusts his mother and is close enough with her to tell her his little secrets and all but this wasn't his story. It was yours. 

 

"You don't have to tell me the details, son." Mrs Kim said when she noticed her son's hesitation. 

 

"Right." Chen chuckled. "Well, we were supposed to go over to her place and have this movie marathon with the others but Mrs Lee called me to meet her after my last period. And Haerin had been released late from her last class so i guess that was why she was still in school." 

 

"Well, anyways, I found her crying again and offered to take her home but she said she didn't want her brother to see her crying so I took her here." Chen said. "You honestly don't mind, right? Me bringing a girl home without your permission." 

 

"No no, I don't. Especially since she's that Haerin that you always talk about." Mrs Kim winked. "Besides, it wasn't like you were bringing a girl home with the wrong intentions, if you know what I mean." 

 

At that, Chen felt his cheeks get hotter. Okay, maybe Chen and his mom aren't that close to talk about this topic comfortably yet. 

 

"But she's better now, yes?" Mrs Kim asked. 

 

"Yeah, I hope she is." Chen said. "She finally opened up to me, you know?" He said with a smile. 

 

"She did?" 

 

"Yeah. Just now, she told me her story. About why she pushed me away when we first knew each other." Chen said. "At least, that's what I think her reason is." 

 

"That's great, then, son. I'm glad you finally got to tear down that wall of hers." Mrs Kim smiled and she really was happy that her son finally had a chance with the girl that he was in love with. 

 

About an hour later, dinner was ready and Mrs Kim had told Chen to go back to his room and wake you up. 

 

Chen quietly opened the door to his room and came in. He walked towards his bed and sat down on the side. Chen looked down at your sleeping face and smiled as he gently moved the stray hair away from your face. 

 

"She's so pretty," Chen softly said to no one in particular. 

 

"Haerin," Chen gently shook you. "Haerin, wake up." 

 

You groaned a little and turned to face the other side. Chen chuckled, thinking that you were adorable. He continued to shake you gently until your eyes fluttered open. 

 

"What..? Oh!" You quickly sat up when you realized that you were asleep on Chen's bed. "I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to fall asleep on you. It must've irritated you that I slept on your bed. I'm so-" 

 

"It's fine. If it had bothered me that you fell asleep on my shoulder, I would've woken you up right then." Chen said with a small smile. 

 

"Still, I'm sorry." You whispered which earned you a soft flick on the forehead. 

 

"Stop saying sorry. You have nothing to apologize for." Chen said. "Now come on, my mom has dinner prepared." Chen stood up and offered you his hand. You slipped your hand in his and stood up from his bed with his help. 

 

After you had insisted that you made his bed first, the two of you made your way to the kitchen where Mrs Kim had prepared a nice pot of kimchi jigae. 

 

"Oh wow, this looks and smells heavenly!" You said and clapped like a little girl upon seeing the dish on the table. "I love kimchi jigae!" 

 

Mrs Kim laughed at the sight of your reaction her to cooking. "I hope it tastes as nice as it looks for you. Sit down," She said and gestured towards the chairs.

 

You took a seat at the round table and hungrily eyed the food as it was passed around the table. When Mrs Kim passed the pot to you, you took a good amount of it (not too much either, sicne you didn't want to appear a pig in front of Chen's mom) and placed it on your plate. 

 

You passed the pot to Chen and you waited till he was done to take a bite. 

 

The taste of the kimchi jigae exploded in your mouth as it reminded you of when your mom had made the dish for you. And it was just as good. 

 

"How is it, dear?" Mrs Kim asked. 

 

"This is amazing, Auntie. It tastes just as good as my mother's!" You exclaimed and took another big spoonful of it as if to prove your point. 

 

"I'm glad you like it," Mrs Kim smiled. "Have more if you want, okay?" 

 

Chen smiled at the scene, She's adorable. 

 

 

* 

 

"Thank you for the wonderful dinner, Auntie!" You said as you went over to her and gave her a hug. 

 

"It's no problem, honey. You can always come over whenever you want," She said and smiled. "Walk her home safely, okay, son?" 

"I will, mom. See you in a bit." Chen said and walked out the door. 

 

Chen and you walked on the streets in silence. But this time, it wasn't awkward at all. After finally opening up to him, you hadinstantly felt like the two of you were much more closer than you used to be. 

 

Up the road, Chen could see Ben and Jerry's outlet around the corner and he immediately thought of you. 

 

"Hey, do you want some ice cream?" He asked as he nudged you lightly. 

 

You looked up to him and smiled, "Ice cream sounds great. Come on, I'll treat." You said and took his hand and walked towards the ice cream shop. 

 

The bell rung as the door opened, signalling that someone had entered. 

 

"Good evening! How may I help you?" The man from the other side of the counter asked with a smile. 

 

"Yes," You said. "One chocolate chip ice cream and..." You looked over to Chen. 

 

"Make that two chocolate chip please," Chen smiled and the man got on to scooping up your ice creams. 

 

When he was done, the two of you headed over to the cashier to get your ice creams and pay.

 

"Total will be $10 please," The man said. 

 

"Alright, hold on," You said as you looked through your bag for your wallet. When you had finally found it, you looked up to give the man a ten dollar note but Chen had already beaten you to it and gave the man his card. 

 

"Hey! I said it's my treat!" You pouted as Chen took back his card from the man. 

 

"It wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me to let a girl pay, would it?" Chen smiled and opened the door for you. 

 

You scowled and and got out of the place. "Still, I owed you." 

 

"Owe me?" Chen raised an eyebrow. "What for?" 

 

"For today," you said. "And for all the other times I've pushed you away." 

 

Chen softened. "You don't owe me anything," he smiled. "Besides, I know that when you're sad, you like to have your ice creams." 

 

You looked up, "How'd you know?" 

 

"I know a lot of things, Haerin. I've always noticed the small things about you." Chen said and you could feel the heat going up your cheeks. 

 

There was a long silence again until Chen broke it by asking, "Can I ask you something?" 

 

"You already are," you snickered. "But what is it?" 

 

"The reason why you kept distancing yourself from me when we first met..." Chen said and you stiffened a bit because of guilt. "Is it because of your past relationship with other guys?" 

 

You sighed, "Yeah. I'm sorry. I must've been a real to you, huh?" You gave Chen a small smile. 

 

He shook his head, "No, you weren't," he said. "I mean, sure I was a little jealous that you talked to the other guys but me. You even talked to Minseok but never me," he said and you could hear the sadness in his voice. 

 

"I'm sorry, I really didn't meant to hurt you or anything." You said. "But it's just that, you kept trying to get closer to me. You kept talking to me and trying to get to know me and I admit, I really wanted to get to know you too. I mean, since my friends and my brother all liked you, I figured you were probably a really great guy." you said. 

 

"But if you noticed, I never talked to any other guy except Baek Oppa and the others." you said. "After Luhan, I thought that maybe, if I just distance myself off guys, they'd give up trying to hit me up and just leave me alone. But you never did and I thought maybe you really were genuinely just trying to be my friend. But I was still scared." 

 

"But after you've been there for me for so many times, I've finally come to realise that I really can trust you." You said and smiled. 

 

"I noticed, Haerin." Chen said. "And it's okay, I totally understand." He smiled. 

 

About half an hour of walking later, the two of you reached your apartment building. "Do you want to come up for a while?" you asked. 

 

"No, it's okay. I gotta go back home," Chen said. "My mom needs me to help her with something." 

 

"Okay, well, thank you." You smiled. "For everything; tonight, the dinner and the ice cream." 

 

"Anytime, Haerin." Chen smiled. "If you need anyone to talk to about anything, I'm here." 

 

In response, you smiled with a nod. "Well go on in," Chen said and gestured you towards your bulding. 

 

"I will." You said. "Thanks, again...Chen oppa." 

 

With that, you left Chen and went into your apartment building while Chen watched you with a goofy smile on his face. She called me oppa, he thought and he felt giddy with happiness.